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Ectenosaurus Clidastoides
''Ectenosaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Plioplatecarpinae subfamily alongside genera like ''Angolasaurus'' and ''Platecarpus''. ''Ectenosaurus'' is known from the Santonian and Campanian of Kansas, Alabama, and Texas. The generic name means "Drawn-out lizard", from Greek ''ectenes'' ("drawn-out") and Greek ''sauros'' ("lizard") referencing the elongated muzzle. Description Based on the length of the preserved skull, about , ''Ectenosaurus'' would have reached in length and weighed . It was a rare genus of mosasaur with several unique characteristics that clearly separate it from other mosasaur genera. The most prominent of these features is its elongated jaws, elongated in a similar vein to other mosasaurs with elongated jaws, such as ''Plotosaurus'' and '' Pluridens''. Russell (1967) considered the form of the teeth, the shape of the frontal and the large suprastapedial process of the quadrate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Logan County, Kansas
Logan County (standard abbreviation: LG) is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the county population was 2,762. The largest city and county seat is Oakley. The county was named for Gen. John A. Logan. One of the county's distinctive features is a mile-long stretch of Smoky Hill Chalk bluffs that tower high over the Smoky Hill River and are dubbed "Little Jerusalem" for resemblance to the ancient walled city. The formation is mostly on private land. In 2016, The Nature Conservancy purchased the property and the Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park opened to the public in October, 2019. History Early history For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau. 19th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selmasaurus Johnsoni
''Selmasaurus'' is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Plioplatecarpinae subfamily alongside genera like ''Angolasaurus'' and ''Platecarpus''. Two species are known, ''S. russelli'' and ''S. johnsoni''; both are exclusively known from Santonian deposits in the United States. ''Selmasaurus'' is unique among the mosasaurs in that its skull is unusually akinetic, meaning that it is incapable of widening to swallow larger prey. Most mosasaurs have skulls which possess "coupled kinesis" (mesokinesis and streptostyly), that is, parts of the jaw can open widely to accommodate large prey. Description ''Selmasaurus'' was a small predatory mosasaur at approximately 3–5 meters in length. It possesses a relatively low number of teeth for a mosasaur, the lowest of any known species at the time of its discovery. Originally classified as a plioplatecarpine mosasaur, it differs from all other plioplatecarpine mosasaurs in sever ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angolasaurus Bocagei
''Angolasaurus'' ("Angola lizard") is an extinct genus of mosasaur. Definite remains from this genus have been recovered from the Turonian and Coniacian of Angola, and possibly the Coniacian of the United States, the Turonian of Brazil, and the Maastrichtian of Niger. While at one point considered a species of ''Platecarpus'', recent phylogenetic analyses have placed it between the (then) plioplatecarpines ''Ectenosaurus'' and ''Selmasaurus'', maintaining a basal position within the plioplatecarpinae. Its wide geographic range make it the one of the only Turonian mosasaurs with a transatlantic range. Description ''Angolasaurus'' was a small mosasaur, with a total length of about 4 meters (13 feet). It shared much of a body plan with its relative ''Platecarpus'', but with a slightly longer skull relative to body length. Its skull housed 11 maxillary teeth, 4 premaxillary teeth, and 12 dentary teeth. The phylogenetic relationship of ''Angolasaurus'' indicates that individuals of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladogram
A cladogram (from Greek ''clados'' "branch" and ''gramma'' "character") is a diagram used in cladistics to show relations among organisms. A cladogram is not, however, an evolutionary tree because it does not show how ancestors are related to descendants, nor does it show how much they have changed, so many differing evolutionary trees can be consistent with the same cladogram. A cladogram uses lines that branch off in different directions ending at a clade, a group of organisms with a last common ancestor. There are many shapes of cladograms but they all have lines that branch off from other lines. The lines can be traced back to where they branch off. These branching off points represent a hypothetical ancestor (not an actual entity) which can be inferred to exhibit the traits shared among the terminal taxa above it. This hypothetical ancestor might then provide clues about the order of evolution of various features, adaptation, and other evolutionary narratives about ance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prognathodon
''Prognathodon'' is an extinct genus of marine lizard belonging to the mosasaur family. It is classified as part of the Mosasaurinae subfamily, alongside genera like ''Mosasaurus'' and ''Clidastes''. ''Prognathodon'' has been recovered from deposits ranging in age from the Campanian to the Maastrichtian in the Middle East, Europe, New Zealand, and North America. ''Prognathodon'' means "forejaw tooth", which originates from the Latin ''pro''- ("earlier" or "prior"), Greek ''gnathos'' ("jaw") and ''odṓn'' ("tooth"). Twelve nominal species of ''Prognathodon'' are recognised, from North America, northern and western Africa, the Middle East, western Europe and New Zealand. Due to the sometimes clear differences between them and the incomplete nature of many of the specimens, the systematics of the genus and which species should properly be considered ''Prognathodon'' is controversial. Some species have been assigned to other genera, such as ''Dollosaurus'' and ''Brachysaurana'', but ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mosasaurinae
The Mosasaurinae are a subfamily of mosasaurs, a diverse group of Late Cretaceous marine squamates. Members of the subfamily are informally and collectively known as "mosasaurines" and their fossils have been recovered from every continent except for South America. The lineage first appears in the Turonian and thrived until the K-Pg mass extinction at the end of the Maastrichtian. They ranged in size from some of the smallest known mosasaurs (''Carinodens'', 3–3.5 meters), to medium-sized taxa (''Clidastes'', 6+ meters), to the largest of the mosasaurs (''Mosasaurus hoffmannii'') potentially reaching about 13 m in length. Many genera of mosasaurines were either piscivorous or generalists, preying on fish and other marine reptiles, but one lineage, the Globidensini, evolved specialized crushing teeth, adapting to a diet of ammonites and/or marine turtles. Though represented by relatively small forms throughout the Turonian and Santonian, such as ''Clidastes'', the lineage diver ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oceans Of Kansas (book)
''Oceans of Kansas'' is a book by Michael J. Everhart, Adjunct Curator of Paleontology at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History and past President of the Kansas Academy of Science. It was published in 2005 by Indiana University Press. It has an award-winning, concomitant website entitled Oceans of Kansas Paleontology. A revised, updated, and expanded edition was published in 2017. It is part of the life of the past series. Summary In ''Oceans of Kansas'' Everhart discusses the state of the land during the Late Cretaceous and earlier, when the area was covered with the marine waters of the Western Interior Seaway, particularly focusing on the record of the Niobrara Cycle of the Seaway as exposed in central Northwestern Kansas (e.g., Trego and Gove Counties). The geologic record shows that ancient lifeforms such as marine reptiles, pteranodons, and toothed birds inhabited the general area both in and out of the water. Everhart also covers the discovery of the fossils and geog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neotype
In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the defining features of that particular taxon. In older usage (pre-1900 in botany), a type was a taxon rather than a specimen. A taxon is a scientifically named grouping of organisms with other like organisms, a set that includes some organisms and excludes others, based on a detailed published description (for example a species description) and on the provision of type material, which is usually available to scientists for examination in a major museum research collection, or similar institution. Type specimen According to a precise set of rules laid down in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) and the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), the scientific name of every taxon is almost a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yale Peabody Museum
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is among the oldest, largest, and most prolific university List of natural history museums, natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, the early paleontologist. Most known to the public for its Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile ''Brontosaurus'' and the mural ''The Age of Reptiles,'' it also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Ancient Egypt, Egyptian Artifact (archaeology), artifacts; and the birds, minerals and Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans of Connecticut. Description The Peabody Museum is located at 170 Whitney Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, United States, and is operated by almost one hundred staff members. While the original building was demolished in 1917, it moved to its current location in 1925, and has since expan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dale Russell
Dale Alan Russell (27 December 1937 – 21 December 2019) was an American-Canadian geologist and palaeontologist. Throughout his career Russell worked as the Curator of Fossil Vertebrates at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Research Professor at the Department of Marine Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (MEAS) at North Carolina State University, and Senior Paleontologist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Dinosaurs he has described include '' Daspletosaurus'' and ''Dromiceiomimus'', and he was amongst the first paleontologists to consider an extraterrestrial cause (supernova, comet, asteroid) for the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Russell also helped lead the China-Canada Dinosaur Project from 1986 to 1991. In 1982, Russell created the "dinosauroid" thought experiment, which speculated an evolutionary path for ''Troodon'' if it had not gone extinct in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fort Hays State University
Fort Hays State University (FHSU) is a public university in Hays, Kansas. It is the fourth-largest of the six state universities governed by the Kansas Board of Regents, with a total enrollment of approximately 15,100 students. History FHSU was founded in 1902 as the Western Branch of Kansas State Normal School, which is now known as Emporia State University. The institution was originally located on the grounds of Fort Hays, a frontier military outpost that was closed in 1889. The university served the early settlers' needs for educational facilities in the new region. The first building closer to Hays was completed in 1904, at which time the university moved to its present location. The modern campus is still located on a portion of the former military reservation from the fort. FHSU was first to be founded as an agricultural based school but was then determined to be a normal school. The normal school was supposed to be supported in part by the agricultural experiment stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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